Radiohead “A Genre” Info-graphic

by Jonathan on February 22, 2011

Jamie Gurnell wrote in to tell us that he created an info-graphic about Radiohead’s music. On his site, he says:

Radiohead is a band that is the very definition of “unclassifiable” I developed this idea of bleeding genres into each other and plotting the corresponding songs on a graph. It was by no means a mathematical undertaking and took several hours of quite enjoyable listening and debate to achieve. What you come away with is the basic idea that Radiohead in itself is its own genre, refusing to fit anywhere but inside itself.

I am aware that this graph will come under scrutiny and be the brunt of harsh remarks, but in a way, that is what it is meant to do. It is meant to be discussed. It is an ongoing work in progress and until Radiohead stops making music it will never be finished.

If you have any suggestions, remarks or thoughts on improving or altering this design I am completely open to them.

After a few more revisions I plan on trying to get some of these made.
They will be approximately 30X30 Inch silk screens.

Many thanks to my friend Art Commisso for the help.

You can view a larger version here.
You can download an even larger version here.

You can view the info-graphic up close by checking out Jamie’s site or clicking the two links above.

I think it would be nice if you showed which songs are which. maybe just numbering teh tracks and putting a number would look nice.

luke

woops. I meant to say putting the number in the triangles.

radiohedonist

i wonder which 2 in rainbows tracks are firmly tucked in the ambient corner?
doesn’t seem to make sense…

kristjad

I’m thinking it’s probably MK1 and MK2

My name

I absolutely love this idea. It looks awesome and it appeals in a big way to the OCD “I think I’ll alphabetize my DVD collection” side of me, but I must admit I’m confused; what happens if a song is psychedelic and ambient, but not in any way jazzy? I’m secretly hoping that the lad wot made this is gonna trawl through these comments (I would). If he does then congratulations you’re awesome.

Jamiegurnell

I believe they are mk1/2

Jamie Gurnell

Strangely enough, it never came up. I was really nervous when we were working out the logistics of this that it wouldn’t work out.

We took Psychedelic to covey that 70’s style rock. So it seemed to fit nicely beside Alt-Rock and as far away from Electronic/Ambient as possible.

Also, its important to keep in mind that most of the songs actually have all 8 of the music styles incorporated into them and the fact that they are farther away from a genre just means it’s more of once influence and less of another.